I’ve been looking for conservative ways my customers can use their Designer Series Paper they purchased from my January-June 2022 Mini Catalog paper share. Last week I blogged about making 4 cards from one piece of 6 x 6 New Horizons DSP. If you missed that post, you can read it here. This week I decided to indulge in my favorite paper from the new catalog, Artfully Composed.
I flipped through my notebook that I jot down card recipes in and landed on the Horizontal Gate Fold scribbling. Half of the recipe was on one page and an arrow pointing to the right signaled to me that I had skipped a page or two for the remainder of the instructions. That happens often to me, because I jot it down measurements while a fellow demonstrator is talking about it on a video. I tell myself that I'll go back and try to find the link or download later, but I never do. Thankfully, this one had all the instructions I needed.
This first picture was not the first card I made with this project, but it was my favorite. You can see I used very little DSP, but a little makes a big splash on this gatefold. You only use 2 small pieces of one pattern and an even smaller piece of a coordinating pattern. I'm happy I bought the entire suite of Artfully Composed, because I was able to use it for my stamping, die cuts and sentiments on the 8 cards I made. The die cut leaf looks almost black in this picture, but it's really Evening Evergreen.
Here's why I made 8 cards with this one little "project idea." I was participating in a card swap with my team, and I needed to make 3 cards exactly alike, so when I started this project, I made 3 cards at one time. Choosing the DSP and card stock is always my favorite part of starting a new project, and I'm usually pretty good at it. So, I made my choices, made the three birthday cards, prepared the envelopes to mail them in, inserted the cards in the envelopes and took them to work to mail out. I also made an extra card for myself so I could remember what I sent them. The more I looked at that card (below), the more I didn't like it. I consulted my fav co-worker, Cookie, and she said, "Send them, they are great masculine birthday cards!" I don't know if that was the final blow (because they weren't meant to be masculine) or if I just failed at the DSP/card stock combination. Whatever the reason, I didn't like them.
So, the next day I played around with another DSP/card stock combo. I did like it much better, and I was getting closer, but it still wasn't "the one." Perhaps you're wondering how I get the flap in the middle to lay down so flat. Well, I'll tell you...I use a set of little tiny, flat magnets between the layers of DSP and card stock! When I learned about these little circle magnets, I was stoked. I can't stand it when my layers don't lay flat.
I decided I definitely wanted to use a piece of the DSP that had the happy Calypso Coral in it and the winner of the card swap was born - 8 cards later. I was finally satisfied! Is everyone crazy like this? Surely, I'm not the only one who has to have it P-E-R-F-E-C T! I loved this project and the outcome so much that I'm thinking about offering it in a card kit on my website. What do you think? Which card is your favorite?
Thanks for reading my blog post today. Maybe you'd like to join one of my in-person classes coming up soon. We have lots of fun creating cards together. So, check out my website at www.justpaperllc.com and subscribe to my newsletter or blog so you can see when I offer classes. Click on my Gallery at the top of my website to see other cards I've made, and I hope you get inspired to create something beautiful!
Kim Webb
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